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DIY Repair – Just Say NO!

Today we are going to discuss a VERY scary topic: DIY Repair kits for iPods & iPhones!

This is a hot topic for almost anyone who has broken their iPod or iPhone – should I fix it myself or send it away?

With the many advertised DIY glass repair kits on the market these days, people oftentimes contemplate doing this seemingly easy repair themselves. After all, you can get a DIY kit for 10 bucks on Amazon or eBay, so why not try, right?

WRONG!

We get inquiries all the time, from people that have attempted these repairs themselves using a DIY kit. Most people have the iPod/iPhone disassembled and cannot reassemble it, some bought kits that didn’t come with a replacement frame (most of them don’t!), some even received acrylic screens in their kit (not glass) as it was advertised to be “compatible” with the iPod or iPhone…the list goes on. Most often though, we receive emails from people who have cracked their LCD while attempting to pry the front glass off. This is extremely easy to do. If you are not familiar with iPod or iPhone repair (i.e. have not repaired 10+ of them), this will probably happen to you, sadly.

If any of the following thoughts are rolling around in your head right now, please request a quote immediately, as you are about to spend 2-3 times the amount of money than you should have to:

– “But it looks so easy and it’s cheaper than sending it to be repaired!”
– “There are TONS of YouTube videos for me to watch, so I won’t mess up.”
– “If I do it myself, I will save $50.”
– “I’m good with electronics, this should be a breeze.”
– “ACME CO. is selling me the DIY parts, with tools and instructions.”
– “My friend fixed theirs and had no problems.”

We have seen, heard and read it all. And we are not trying to tell you that if you do try to perform this repair that you will 100% fail at it, you may indeed succeed at it, but completing the repair is only half the battle. You see, the parts you are receiving for $10.00 in that perfectly priced kit are of extremely poor quality. They are non-OEM. They are not made for your device, specifically. They are replicas. They may not even be the exact size that your device is. Believe it or not – every single iPod Touch (1-5) and even the iPhones (3GS-5S) all take a different sized replacement parts. None of them are the same. Some sizing differences are by only 100ths of millimeters. A lot of times, even when people do perform all the steps correctly to fix their device themselves, it fails to fit properly, because it simply isn’t the correct size. At that point, most people will blame themselves thinking they did something wrong, so they disassemble and reassemble several times, usually damaging other parts in the process.

There are so many teeny-tiny parts, cables, ribbons and screws inside our beloved Apple iPods and iPhones – it truly boggles the mind. A small slip of a finger, a little too much pressure, a few specks of dust in the air – these are all things that will jeopardize your device in an instant. Sometimes, you might even forget to put a screw back in, only to notice after you have put it all back together. Ughhhhh!

Repairing these devices is difficult. Our techs have now done thousands (literally) of iPhone and iPod repairs, and sometimes they still come across issues during repairs….issues that only someone that truly knows what they are doing could even begin to address/troubleshoot. You might be partially insane if you even attempt to repair these yourself! Since you have to remove everything (and we mean everything) from inside them, starting at the backplate…it makes for a very tricky repair. In fact, after discussing this blog topic with our techs, many of them said “I still get nervous doing those (iPhone 4s/iPod Touch 4) repairs. They are more precise and fragile than any other model I’ve ever worked on.”

So, my tech savvy reader – we are not trying to discourage for enthusiasm for performing your own self-repair on your Apple product, really. We just feel that since we get so many inquiries from people who have attempted and failed at it, that we should make our own opinion known. And really, it’s not that we are trying to solicit you to send us your device because we think you’ll fail and we want your business – we just know that the odds of success for these nano-tech based repairs are slim. Our customers can spend less money and have a professionally installed repair using quality parts with a warranty, for way less than what they will spend in the long run, using a DIY kit. The risks are too great, and too costly if you fail! Our competitors won’t tell you this, unfortunately. They want you to buy the parts and break your device, or not be able to install it. WHY? Because they bank on the fact that you will come running back to them, device in hand, and have them fix it for you. The instructional videos that they show you are missing important details and are a lot of the times edited. Our techs have all watched them, and 99% of the time I hear them say “that is wrong! it does NOT work like that!” and “they didn’t even show how that comes out first!” Hmmm. Kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Our advice: Let the professionals handle it. Even if you do have success with the install, the parts are cheap and will likely fail in a few months. Plus, we have a 1 year warranty on ALL of our repairs. If something goes wrong, let us take it apart again for you 🙂